Nars Buenos Aires

NARS has introduced two new lip pencils for Summer 2012. First, let’s look at NARS Never Say Never Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($24), a lavender rose designed to make us all true Beliebers in the power of color.

True to its name, Never Say Never has a matte finish yet seems to leave the lips feeling and looking creamy, without the drying quality that some mattes have. On Liz:

NARS Buenos Aires Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil ($24) has an entirely different texture–although it’s a pencil, there is a high-shine glossy look to this. I’ve been waiting forever for a good glossy nude pencil. This color can really add a touch of nude polish–it’s a quiet color that can be extraordinarily useful.

Unlike Nars Hopi which has a warm, almost golden cast, Buenos Aires is a true nude.

On Liz, you can see that the texture is quite glossy compared to Never Say Never:

Swatches of both Nars Never Say Never and Nars Buenos Aires:

Overall, Buenos Aires is an extremely useful glossy nude. Never Say Never is a strong, on-trend color designed to work perfectly with this year’s pop of color trend. If your look is otherwise neutral, you may need to wake up your lips with a touch of drama. That pervasive orange that’s seems to be everywhere can pull really warm on some skin tones. The other on-trend shades are within the same family as Never Say Never — a fun hot-pink with a touch of lavender that fits well within the “C’mon, it’s summer, live a little” vibe.

In case you got the craving:

Nars provided Never Say Never and Buenos Aires to Cafe Makeup without charge for consideration for review.

Nars Summer 2012 introduces the NARS Marie-Galante eyeshadow duo ($34). The colors have a light, fairy light quality that NARS describes as an iridescent orchid and iridescent blue. The formula is pearly and looks refreshing, light and pretty–the formula is embedded with extremely small micro-sparkles that adds a beautiful luminescence to the eyes.

Close up:

The pan changes slightly as you move it in the light, because of the iridescent formula in this duo.

Here, Liz applied the orchid/purple color with the Edward Bess Luxury Eye Brush (reviewed here at The Beauty Look Book) to sweep the color across the lid. This Edward Bess brush applies color with a light-to-medium touch, and so the first pass gives a beautiful sheer wash of iridecent purple across my lid. With a denser brush, or with two passes of the Edward Bess brush, Liz built the color in intensity. The blue color (which Liz used in the crease) of Marie-Galante has more pigmentation than the orchid right off the brush:

I was worried that the purple color would be too much, but Nars Marie-Galante gave me a very flattering wash of color. Another:

The formula has a lightness that is sort of pearly and gorgeous. I wore it out to dinner, and loved the look. Here are some swatches:

Here, I turned the swatches away from the light, you can see how the color changes a bit:

I loved the way that Francois Nars executed this duo. Here, I compare NARS Marie-Galante with two similar shades from MAC–Leisuretime and Wait Until Dark (both discontinued). As you can see, NARS Marie-Galante looks sophisticated, and has a pretty depth and complexity. By comparison, the MAC colors have a heavier, metallic quality that can overwhelm.

NARS Marie-Galante is a gorgeous, highly wearable duo. The lightness and iridescent quality, together with the gorgeous color, compliments the eyes by drawing attention. It’s an easy pop of color designed to work with bronzers and that even those with pale skin tones can confidently pull off. NARS Marie-Galante adds a welcome coolness to balance out the warmth of many summer color products. For example, the duo coordinates beautifully with the rest of NARS Summer 2012 collection, given that many of the pieces evoke warmth, bronzes, and deep terracotta reds.

For Liz (picture at top), the duo compliments her color without taking over. In the top picture, Liz is wearing: